The Brauroneion was the sanctuary of
Artemis
In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Artemis (; grc-gre, Ἄρτεμις) is the goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, nature, vegetation, childbirth, care of children, and chastity. She was heavily identified wit ...
Brauronia on the
Athenian Acropolis
The Acropolis of Athens is an ancient citadel located on a rocky outcrop above the city of Athens and contains the remains of several ancient buildings of great architectural and historical significance, the most famous being the Parthenon. Th ...
, located in the southwest corner of the Acropolis plateau, between the
Chalkotheke
The Chalkotheke (Greek for "bronze store") was a structure on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece. Its name and function are only known from 4th century BC inscriptions. One decree orders the listing of all objects stored in the Chalkotheke and the ere ...
and the
Propylaea
In ancient Greek architecture, a propylaea, propylea or propylaia (; Greek: προπύλαια) is a monumental gateway. They are seen as a partition, specifically for separating the secular and religious pieces of a city. The prototypical Gree ...
in
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...
. It was originally dedicated during the reign of
Peisistratos
Pisistratus or Peisistratus ( grc-gre, Πεισίστρατος ; 600 – 527 BC) was a politician in ancient Athens, ruling as tyrant in the late 560s, the early 550s and from 546 BC until his death. His unification of Attica, the triangular ...
. ''Artemis Brauronia'', protector of women in pregnancy and childbirth, had her main sanctuary at
Brauron
Brauron (; grc, Βραυρών) was one of the twelve cities of ancient Attica, but never mentioned as a ''deme'', though it continued to exist down to the latest times. It was situated on or near the eastern coast of Attica, between Steiria and ...
, a ''
demos
Demos may refer to:
Computing
* DEMOS, a Soviet Unix-like operating system
* DEMOS (ISP), the first internet service provider in the USSR
* Demos Commander, an Orthodox File Manager for Unix-like systems
* plural for Demo (computer programming)
...
'' on the east coast of
Attica
Attica ( el, Αττική, Ancient Greek ''Attikḗ'' or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece and its countryside. It is a peninsula projecting into the Aegean Se ...
.
The sanctuary on the Acropolis was of an unusual trapezoidal shape and did not contain a formal
temple
A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...
. Instead, a portico or ''
stoa
A stoa (; plural, stoas,"stoa", ''Oxford English Dictionary'', 2nd Ed., 1989 stoai, or stoae ), in ancient Greek architecture, is a covered walkway or portico, commonly for public use. Early stoas were open at the entrance with columns, usually ...
'' served that function. The ''stoa'' measured ''circa'' 38 by 6.8 m; it stood in front of the southern Acropolis wall, facing north. At its corners, there were two
risalit
An ''avant-corps'' ( it, avancorpo or , plural , german: Risalit, pl, ryzalit), a French term literally meaning "fore-body", is a part of a building, such as a porch or pavilion, that juts out from the ''corps de logis'', often taller than othe ...
-like side wings, each about 9.3 m long, the western one facing east and vice versa. North of the east wing stood a further short west-facing ''stoa''. All of the sanctuary's western part, now lost, stood on the remains of the
Mycenaean fortification wall. All that remains of the eastern pare are foundations for walls, cut into the bedrock, as well as some very few architectural members of limestone.
One of the wings contained the wooden
cult statue
In the practice of religion, a cult image is a human-made object that is venerated or worshipped for the deity, spirit or daemon that it embodies or represents. In several traditions, including the ancient religions of Egypt, Greece and Rome ...
(
xoanon
A xoanon (, el, ξόανον; plural: el, ξόανα , from the verb el, ξέειν, , to carve or scrape ood was an Archaic wooden cult image of Ancient Greece. Classical Greeks associated such cult objects, whether aniconic or effigy, with ...
) of the
goddess
A goddess is a female deity. In many known cultures, goddesses are often linked with literal or metaphorical pregnancy or imagined feminine roles associated with how women and girls are perceived or expected to behave. This includes themes of s ...
. Women who petitioned Artemis for help habitually dedicated items of clothing, which were draped around the statue. In 346 BC, a second cult statue was erected. According to
Pausanias Pausanias ( el, Παυσανίας) may refer to:
*Pausanias of Athens, lover of the poet Agathon and a character in Plato's ''Symposium''
*Pausanias the Regent, Spartan general and regent of the 5th century BC
*Pausanias of Sicily, physician of th ...
, it was a work by
Praxiteles
Praxiteles (; el, Πραξιτέλης) of Athens, the son of Cephisodotus the Elder, was the most renowned of the Attica sculptors of the 4th century BC. He was the first to sculpt the nude female form in a life-size statue. While no indubita ...
.
Pausanias Pausanias ( el, Παυσανίας) may refer to:
*Pausanias of Athens, lover of the poet Agathon and a character in Plato's ''Symposium''
*Pausanias the Regent, Spartan general and regent of the 5th century BC
*Pausanias of Sicily, physician of th ...
wrote:
There is also a sanctuary t Athens
T, or t, is the twentieth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''tee'' (pronounced ), plural ''tees''. It is deri ...
of Artemis Brauronia (of Brauron); the image is the work of Praxiteles, but the goddess derives her name from the parish of Brauron. The old wooden image is in Brauron, Artemis Tauria (of Tauros) as she is called.
Pausanias also records the presence of an over-life-sized bronze horse representing the
Trojan Horse
The Trojan Horse was a wooden horse said to have been used by the Greeks during the Trojan War to enter the city of Troy and win the war. The Trojan Horse is not mentioned in Homer's ''Iliad'', with the poem ending before the war is concluded, ...
.
Then there is a sanctuary of the Brauronian Artemis... The horse one sees here, referred to as wooden, is in bronze... But tradition has it that inside that horse were hidden the most valiant of the Greeks, and indeed the design (schema) of the bronze figure fits in well with this story. Menestheus and Teucer are peeping out of it, and behind them also the sons of Theseus.
Further evidence is provided by the
scholion
Scholia (singular scholium or scholion, from grc, σχόλιον, "comment, interpretation") are grammatical, critical, or explanatory comments – original or copied from prior commentaries – which are inserted in the margin of th ...
to
Aristophanes
Aristophanes (; grc, Ἀριστοφάνης, ; c. 446 – c. 386 BC), son of Philippus, of the deme
In Ancient Greece, a deme or ( grc, δῆμος, plural: demoi, δημοι) was a suburb or a subdivision of Athens and other city-states ...
mentioning the name of the dedicator, Chairedemos. This is corroborated by the survival of the base of the sculpture on the Acropolis, which is inscribed with the names of Chairedemos and its sculptor
Strongylion. The reference in Aristophanes allows for a
terminus ante quem
''Terminus post quem'' ("limit after which", sometimes abbreviated to TPQ) and ''terminus ante quem'' ("limit before which", abbreviated to TAQ) specify the known limits of dating for events or items..
A ''terminus post quem'' is the earliest da ...
of the statue of 415/414.
[Bruno d'Agostino, The Trojan Horse between Athena and Artemis, Annali di Archeologia e Storia Antica, 13, 2006, pp.185-195.]
The entrance to the small sacred precinct, near its northeast corner, is still marked by seven rock-cut steps. They, and its northern enclosure, were probably created by
Mnesicles during the building of the Propylaea. The date of the complex in its final shape is unclear, but a date around 430 BC, similar to that of the adjacent Propylaea, is commonly assumed.
If still in use by the 4th-century, the temple would have been closed during the
persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire
Persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire began during the reign of Constantine the Great (306–337) in the military colony of Aelia Capitolina (Jerusalem), when he destroyed a pagan temple for the purpose of constructing a Christian church ...
, when the Christian Emperors issued edicts prohibiting non-Christian worship.
Notes
Bibliography
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{{coord, 37.9715, N, 23.7255, E, source:wikidata, display=title
Acropolis of Athens
Ancient Greek buildings and structures in Athens
Former buildings and structures in Greece
Temples of Artemis
5th-century BC religious buildings and structures